- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 71,228
Up until a year or so ago, I dont think I had ever seen a pocket-knife being sold in my local market. These past few weeks, due to various seasonal factors, its been much that way again, but on the whole the situation has changed dramatically, and over the past six months Ive had some reasonable finds there. What seems to have made a difference is that the traders have realised that theres a market for old slipjoints, namely ME, who theyve taken to calling The Penknife Man! 
Even stall-holders Ive never spoken to before have approached me, and asked if I am he! So, hopefully, when theyre scouring the car-boot sales and junk shops, and doing house clearances when someone dies, or when theyre offered a few old pocket-knives by a seller, rather than passing them up, theyll realise they can make a quick profit selling them to Yours Truly.
Unfortunately, the car-boot sales are almost all closed for the winter, as are many of the antique fairs and jumble sales. There are less people shopping in the markets, less people bringing goods to sell, and a number of the traders I regularly buy from have shut up shop for the whole of January. Its been a rather dismal month, but then I expected that. I keep looking anyway, in my local market, and further afield, looking forward to sunnier days and better rewards.
Yesterday, I was doing the rounds of the market, and I didnt see anything at all worth buying. Theres a nice chap Ive bought one or two things off, who specialises in old coins and pocket-watches, but who often tells me he has a whole box of knives somewhere at home. I look forward to the day he finds them, if it ever comes, yesterday certainly wasnt it. He recognised me as I passed his stall though, and told me that someone had left a bag of knives for me, for which the bloke wanted a fiver (£5). Usually these job-lots are a mixed bag, but you might find one or two decent knives in with the rest. So, I paid him and took them home.
There were 10 knives in the bag, so its hard to believe they wouldnt be worth £5, but what a dreadful pile of rubbish it contained. Im sure the market-trader sold them on to me in good faith, perhaps he was even sold them in good faith, but the original owner of what is left of these knives wants horse-whipping in my opinion. What kind of moron treats his tools like this? Its bad enough that someone would break one knife blade using it as a pry-bar, but to work your way through a whole pile of them, snapping blade after blade, thats a special kind of stupid. As you can see from the photos, the state of the knives was disgraceful, and most of them have blades snapped off. They were scarcely worth the cost and effort involved in cleaning them.
I separated them into two piles, the first might be worth a little effort, the second not really worth any.
In the latter pile were two Chinese-made SAK-copies, the sort that get sold here for as little as the equivalent of $1. Both had one of their covers missing, and were otherwise in a filthy and decrepid state. The German Scout knife might have been a little more interesting if it had not had a blade completely snapped off, and the tip snapped off another. Like the Richards 4-blade Scout knife it also has terrible blade-play, undoubtedly from prying. The fourth knife may well be the cheapest-looking knife I have ever come across, in the American sense of the word (in Britain, the word cheap simply means inexpensive), its like someone has stuck an old knife blade between two pieces from an aluminium-foil takeaway container, from which theyve also fashioned an awl. Im almost tempted to clean this one up!
Thats the worst of the rubbish out of the way, now for the rest of it.
The ruler-knife was in an absolutely filthy state, as you can see, and if it was not a Chestermans ruler, I might not have bothered with it. Chestermans (later Rabone & Chesterman) had a large Sheffield factory on Pomona Street, backing onto the River Porter, one of Sheffields small, but important rivers. My grandmother was born on Pomona Street, and she worked at Chestermans as a young girl, as did her mother, and much later my brothers godfather. The rulers in which the company specialised were made from long strips of steel of various widths, and many Sheffield workmen had off-cut rulers in their tool-boxes, made from the strip-ends. Chestermans produced rulers for other companies to advertise their names, and this penknife carries the name of a company in Darlington. I imagine it was intended to be given to the companys clients. I had not expected to find the name of another manufacturer on the blade tangs, and there is none. It may have been manufactured by any number of Sheffield cutlery companies, or possibly it may even have been put together in-house. Unfortunately, its not much of a knife now, but Ill keep that one, the smell reminds me of walking past the rear of the factory many times as a young child, and the knife makes me think of my Gran.
The Crossland Brothers pen-knife has not only lost a blade, but the tip of the remaining blade is damaged. Its interesting that in terms of the tang-stamp, prominence is given to England rather than to Sheffield.
I forget the name of this pattern with the Wharncliffe blade, but I think it would have been quite a nice knife once. The remaining blade still has plenty of snap in it, but Im unable to make out the maker. The bone covers have a lovely grain to them, but Im unsure exactly what theyre made of.
Theres not much left of the Wigfall. A shame as I dont have anything else from this old Sheffield firm.
Though it has been neglected, the Richards Pen (the fourth knife in the group pic above) seems to have got away with its blades intact, and indeed theyre still sharp, so perhaps this one came from a different lot, or perhaps it was lucky, and the original owner ran out of paint-cans to open, or went to meet his maker (or a big pitchfork) before he got round to snapping the blades of another knife.
Jack
Even stall-holders Ive never spoken to before have approached me, and asked if I am he! So, hopefully, when theyre scouring the car-boot sales and junk shops, and doing house clearances when someone dies, or when theyre offered a few old pocket-knives by a seller, rather than passing them up, theyll realise they can make a quick profit selling them to Yours Truly.Unfortunately, the car-boot sales are almost all closed for the winter, as are many of the antique fairs and jumble sales. There are less people shopping in the markets, less people bringing goods to sell, and a number of the traders I regularly buy from have shut up shop for the whole of January. Its been a rather dismal month, but then I expected that. I keep looking anyway, in my local market, and further afield, looking forward to sunnier days and better rewards.
Yesterday, I was doing the rounds of the market, and I didnt see anything at all worth buying. Theres a nice chap Ive bought one or two things off, who specialises in old coins and pocket-watches, but who often tells me he has a whole box of knives somewhere at home. I look forward to the day he finds them, if it ever comes, yesterday certainly wasnt it. He recognised me as I passed his stall though, and told me that someone had left a bag of knives for me, for which the bloke wanted a fiver (£5). Usually these job-lots are a mixed bag, but you might find one or two decent knives in with the rest. So, I paid him and took them home.
There were 10 knives in the bag, so its hard to believe they wouldnt be worth £5, but what a dreadful pile of rubbish it contained. Im sure the market-trader sold them on to me in good faith, perhaps he was even sold them in good faith, but the original owner of what is left of these knives wants horse-whipping in my opinion. What kind of moron treats his tools like this? Its bad enough that someone would break one knife blade using it as a pry-bar, but to work your way through a whole pile of them, snapping blade after blade, thats a special kind of stupid. As you can see from the photos, the state of the knives was disgraceful, and most of them have blades snapped off. They were scarcely worth the cost and effort involved in cleaning them.
I separated them into two piles, the first might be worth a little effort, the second not really worth any.
In the latter pile were two Chinese-made SAK-copies, the sort that get sold here for as little as the equivalent of $1. Both had one of their covers missing, and were otherwise in a filthy and decrepid state. The German Scout knife might have been a little more interesting if it had not had a blade completely snapped off, and the tip snapped off another. Like the Richards 4-blade Scout knife it also has terrible blade-play, undoubtedly from prying. The fourth knife may well be the cheapest-looking knife I have ever come across, in the American sense of the word (in Britain, the word cheap simply means inexpensive), its like someone has stuck an old knife blade between two pieces from an aluminium-foil takeaway container, from which theyve also fashioned an awl. Im almost tempted to clean this one up!
Thats the worst of the rubbish out of the way, now for the rest of it.
The ruler-knife was in an absolutely filthy state, as you can see, and if it was not a Chestermans ruler, I might not have bothered with it. Chestermans (later Rabone & Chesterman) had a large Sheffield factory on Pomona Street, backing onto the River Porter, one of Sheffields small, but important rivers. My grandmother was born on Pomona Street, and she worked at Chestermans as a young girl, as did her mother, and much later my brothers godfather. The rulers in which the company specialised were made from long strips of steel of various widths, and many Sheffield workmen had off-cut rulers in their tool-boxes, made from the strip-ends. Chestermans produced rulers for other companies to advertise their names, and this penknife carries the name of a company in Darlington. I imagine it was intended to be given to the companys clients. I had not expected to find the name of another manufacturer on the blade tangs, and there is none. It may have been manufactured by any number of Sheffield cutlery companies, or possibly it may even have been put together in-house. Unfortunately, its not much of a knife now, but Ill keep that one, the smell reminds me of walking past the rear of the factory many times as a young child, and the knife makes me think of my Gran.
The Crossland Brothers pen-knife has not only lost a blade, but the tip of the remaining blade is damaged. Its interesting that in terms of the tang-stamp, prominence is given to England rather than to Sheffield.
I forget the name of this pattern with the Wharncliffe blade, but I think it would have been quite a nice knife once. The remaining blade still has plenty of snap in it, but Im unable to make out the maker. The bone covers have a lovely grain to them, but Im unsure exactly what theyre made of.
Theres not much left of the Wigfall. A shame as I dont have anything else from this old Sheffield firm.
Though it has been neglected, the Richards Pen (the fourth knife in the group pic above) seems to have got away with its blades intact, and indeed theyre still sharp, so perhaps this one came from a different lot, or perhaps it was lucky, and the original owner ran out of paint-cans to open, or went to meet his maker (or a big pitchfork) before he got round to snapping the blades of another knife.
Jack
I would have paid a tenner for that one alone , I like stripping the old ones down removing broken blades or grinding new ones to suit ,then putting them back to work ! Keep rescuing and Ihope the weathers better oop North than here down South 
